Paper mills produce large rolls of paper and other paper products that often are 50" in diameter, 50" wide and weigh 500 lbs. or more, and even larger, which require protection against dirt, moisture and physical damage during warehousing, internal use as when a roll is moved to areas for converting, and transport of finished rolls to customers.
One of the common present methods of wrapping such rolls is to wind wrapping material (plastic or paper) about the curved side surface of the roll. Wrapping machines are available commercially which perform this function by holding the roll either horizontally or vertically and rotating it about its axis. This general type of apparatus is also shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,570,266; 3,863,425; 3,514,920; 4,050,221; and 4,077,179. Such machines, however, are able to wrap only the curved side surface of the roll; separate end cap pieces must be placed over each end of the roll in order to complete the wrapping enclosure. This method of wrapping a large roll is time consuming as it requires a number of separate operations and extra man hours, and it fails to provide the desired level of protection for the roll. The equipment required is quite large and takes up considerable floor space. Often two machines are necessary, one to wrap the roll and another to crimp and position the end cap pieces. Several supply rolls of wrapping paper, each carried on individual unwind stands, of various widths are needed in order to properly wrap individual rolls of different lengths (i.e. paper of different widths). The equipment also normaly requires the application of two end cap pieces, the first being applied before the wrapper is crimped around the ends of the roll, and the second being applied after the wrapper has been crimped. In order to promote machine efficiency, it is likely that a number of rolls of similar widths would be accumulated in a surge area and then wrapped at one time. The net result is excessive damage to the product and a relativey high cost of wrapping.
Another presently known method for wrapping such rolls is to use a large plastic bag. This method also is time consuming in its manpower requirements and suffers the further disadvantage of being able to provide only a loosely-fitting wrapper. The loose wrapper can be easily punctured or torn and it fails to provide adequate protection for the roll.
The problem of effective and efficient wrapping of large rolls of paper, paperboard and tissue still exists in the paper industry. It is also present in other fields, such as the manufacture of textiles or building materials, in which large diameter cylindrical objects require protective wrapping. Thus there remains a need for a low cost system for wrapping large diameter cylindrical objects in a manner which will provide effective product protection in view of the deficiencies of the prior art systems discussed above.